


A Place Much Simpler Than This (A Foggy Lullaby Remix)

by littledust



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 01:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledust/pseuds/littledust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinn's spent the last part of high school leaving herself behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place Much Simpler Than This (A Foggy Lullaby Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angelgazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelgazing/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Place Much Simpler Than This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/104466) by [angelgazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelgazing/pseuds/angelgazing). 



> Spoilers through the most recent episode of Season 3.

Quinn doesn't tell anyone what day she's leaving for Yale; spends most of the summer playing it off with a shrug and a smile. If any of her friends are surprised that the meticulous Quinn Fabray is being so blase about the next step of her life, they keep it to themselves. It doesn't take much to plant the suggestion that she's looser, freer after making her recovery from the accident, that her new perspective on life allows her to take things one day at a time.

(She got herself to walk again the same way she clawed her way to captain of the Cheerios. No trainer's voice, not even Sue Sylvester's, can compare to the little voice in her head that tells her to push herself harder, _harder_ , lest she fail.)

So she passes the summer at pool parties, floating around Santana's pool until it's time to climb out and eat dinner. Kurt and Finn are the undisputed kings of the grill, the former with his secret barbecue sauce recipe and the latter with his perfect flip timing. Quinn requests a veggie burger to several good-natured jests from the football boys and ends up splitting it with Joe, eating her half one-handed as she places her other hand in his. He still seems adrift in this odd collection of people, but she's been there before.

("No bikinis?" Brittany asks at the beginning of summer, face sad as she looks at the three new bathing suits on Quinn's bed. "All of us know what your scars look like. You don't have to hide them.")

Her mother helps her load the last of her things into her car at seven A.M. one muggy August morning. The street is still except for the hum of cicadas. Quinn tucks a wisp of hair behind her ear, already sweating in the heat. She's bringing less than she thought, but then, becoming homeless twice in one year teaches you how to pack light.

"I suppose I'm lucky to even get a goodbye," her mother murmurs, as if Quinn needs the reminder that none of her friends are here to see her off. "Have a good first semester, dear."

"I'll try," Quinn says, pressing her lips once against her mother's cheek. "I'll call when I get there."

(It's cruel, leaving the people she loves this way, but she hopes this is her last cruel act. She hopes that holding patterns can be broken. Maybe eleven hours between Quinn Fabray and Lima, Ohio will be enough.)


End file.
